Decade in review: How Phil Spencer led an Xbox revolution at Microsoft in 2022s

Source: Windows Central

Microsoft has been edifice games for decades, just information technology was arguably only recently that the company started truly taking this aspect of its history seriously.

Microsoft'south operating systems have been used to build games since the beginning, with Redmond itself making hundreds of games over the years. It originally created Solitaire as a way to railroad train users on how to use a mouse and the peripheral has spawned an entire industry of entertainment products in its wake.

Microsoft's relationship with gaming has ever been a bit iffy, at least from the elevation down. Even now, arguably, Microsoft struggles with its identity as a productivity provider and an entertainment provider, and over the years, these two aspects of the company accept clashed heavily.

Microsoft'southward gaming efforts have long been lumped in as part of its Windows operation, often forced to support tech and software for the benefit of Microsoft's other business efforts. This contention has alienated gamers over the years, but as nosotros motility into 2022, gaming has undergone a seismic shift at Microsoft, which is fantastic news for gamers everywhere.

How did nosotros go hither?

Source: Windows Central

Microsoft'due south relationship with gamers has been, upwardly and downward, shall we say. PC gamers still refer back to the dreaded "Games for Windows Live" platform, which tried to lock downwards PC gaming on Windows. Microsoft has discontinued the service and decoupled it from most games that still used information technology, but it remains a pain betoken for the brand. I'd argue that it'southward not as pivotal as what happened back in 2022, though.

The Xbox 1'southward launch in 2022 torpedoed the brand's image, something hardcore, as Microsoft attempted to attach digital rights to physical discs, restricting the resale market. Also, the Xbox One was $100 more expensive being forcibly bundled with Kinect, while as well being limited to online apply only. Information technology became a fleck of a meme as a result, leading to thousands of hours of anger across YouTube, and even more than aroused commentary.

On newspaper, some parts arguably fabricated sense, given the way PC games had shifted towards digital licenses, leading to lower prices, cloud saves, family sharing, and other digital benefits. Microsoft had attempted to communicate some of these benefits, such as the ability to share a unmarried buy betwixt up to ten other family unit members. Still, it did and then poorly, and Sony pounced on the drama with its more "consumer-friendly" PlayStation 4, giving its console a massive headstart.

The drama led to a period of soul searching at Xbox and saw a scrap of a leadership shuffle occur in its wake. Phil Spencer, previously leading Microsoft Studios, stepped upward to the plate. The Microsoft veteran immediately gear up about repairing the damage left past the previous administration. However, Spencer and the new team have had their piece of work cut out for them.

A rocky road to redemption

Source: Microsoft Scalebound's cancellation was i of many pain points for Xbox through this generation.

Microsoft has been playing catch up throughout this generation, and Spencer's gaming division had a range of hurdles to overcome to get to where nosotros are today, both externally and internally.

Xbox and gaming, in general, remained role of the Windows division, which itself has been undergoing some significant challenges. The death of Microsoft's mobile platform, the stagnation of the Universal Windows app model, and failure to capitalize on fundamental computing innovations like smart assistants, IoT, and others certainly had a knock-on event at Xbox. Bundling Kinect with Xbox I inflated the price of the panel by $100, for an accessory nobody asked for. The inclusion was part of Microsoft's efforts to bring more services to the living room, beyond gaming. Meanwhile, Amazon stepped in with a global focus on its Echo speakers, squashing Kinect's potential in voice controls, and later on, Microsoft'due south Cortana herself, into dust. Kinect is now discontinued, and Cortana has been stripped out of the Xbox Bone in its entirety, representing a whole heap of wasted try.

Source: Microsoft Microsoft's Kinect, now a $100 paperweight.

On the PC gaming side, Microsoft had Xbox aircraft its games based on the UWP architecture through the god awful Microsoft Store, which remains god awful to this day. UWP games had performance bug, were locked out from mods, and wouldn't download properly at the outset, not to mention a range of other bug associated with their container-based delivery organisation. On the Xbox side, issues with content began to hamstring the brand even more.

Source: Microsoft Fable Legends was a proto service-type game that failed to escape its beta.

Microsoft had a few high-profile cancellations, including Fable Legends, Phantom Dust, and Scalebound. All had been highly-advertised games, showcased at events with trailers and sometimes hands-on play sessions, in the case of Fable Legends at to the lowest degree. Fable Legends never managed to emerge from beta, leading to the closure of Lionhead. Phantom Dust's cancellation likewise led to the closure of another studio. The last nail was Scalebound, which solidified a perception that Xbox's first-party announcements were unreliable at best. A range of games as well launched with rough quality, in the case of Recore and State of Decay 2, while others felt low-budget and express in telescopic, in the case of Sea of Thieves and Crackdown 3.

This era marks a time when Xbox wasn't given the cash menstruum to run across expectations beingness set by Sony'due south stellar content output. Notwithstanding, with Spencer'southward promotion to the senior leadership team in 2022, behind the scenes, Xbox began to enjoy serious investment for the get-go fourth dimension in years.

Xbox reboots itself

Source: Windows Fundamental Phil Spencer announces the Xbox 360 backwards compatibility program, bringing hundreds of classic games to the modern Xbox platform.

With Spencer, and thus, gaming itself elevated to a senior leadership position answering straight to CEO Satya Nadella, the true potential of Xbox is finally being realized.

No longer forced to use UWP or the Microsoft Shop to stock its games, Xbox has begun supporting Win32 games on a carve up store of its own, complete with an incredibly high-value Netflix-manner subscription service called Xbox Game Laissez passer. For a small-scale monthly payment, you get access to hundreds of games on both Xbox consoles and PC to download and play at your leisure, and the response has been rather huge. Xbox is too now supporting Steam for PC itself, with Halo: Reach topping charts for sales and engagement.

Spencer'due south Xbox has as well been pioneering in promoting cantankerous-play systems. Minecraft enjoys unprecedented cross-play admission across Nintendo Switch, VR, mobile devices, Xbox, PC, and even PlayStation iv recently, bringing millions of players across all platforms into a single deject-based platform. Every bit Microsoft's business organization increasingly shifts to the deject, it is these sorts of gaming opportunities that really speak to CEO Satya Nadella, who was instrumental in building Microsoft's industry-leading Azure cloud business. Spencer'due south Microsoft has besides been a force for accessibility and inclusion, with tech like the Xbox Adaptive Controller improving access to games for those with disabilities.

Microsoft has found immense success in subscription services. Office 365 being primary amongst those, but besides historically Xbox Live Gilded, which remains core to the Xbox experience. With Xbox Game Pass, Spencer's Xbox has built an opportunity that works not but for Microsoft, but also for consumers through its undeniable value, and developers, with instant cash injections and instant virality through promotion on the platform. Xbox Game Pass can be platform doubter too, spreading across PC, and soon, virtually any device, through Project XCloud game streaming, which is by far the most promising cloud gaming offer on the horizon.

Xbox Game Pass, as a Netflix-like subscription service model, requires content. The knock-on outcome of trying to bring scale to Xbox Game Pass is the largest investment in content Microsoft has ever seen. Xbox Game Studios, formerly Microsoft Studios, has exploded to xiv individual game studios, with dozens of titles in development. The need to bandage a broad net across all sorts of genres and all sorts of demographics looks like it's leading to an explosion in diversity too, a far cry from the shooter-oriented Microsoft of the Xbox 360 era.

All this comes to ahead with Microsoft's improved hardware offering, buoyed by Surface, and other additional investments in industrial engineering. The Xbox Ane S and X two-pronged panel offering looks set to continue with the adjacent-generation Xbox Serial Ten and expected Xbox Series "Southward" to address consumers at both ends of the market place, while Microsoft continues to invest in PC gamers with Xbox Game Pass, and mobile-oriented devices with Projection XCloud.

This is all driven past a renewed focus in content that already looks equally though information technology'south bearing fruit with games like Wasteland 3, Gears Tactics, and the incredible-looking Hellblade II on the horizon.

Looking alee to 2022 and across

The by decade has been a relatively tough 1 for Xbox. The complacency Microsoft built up from its pole position with the Xbox 360 derailed this entire generation, which, as we shift increasingly digital, was the worst generation to have lost. Information technology'due south only through the squad'south more contempo efforts that Microsoft has been able to cling on, with Spencer'due south leadership proving pivotal to getting Xbox the freedom and backing to realize its full potential.

Xbox has finally been unleashed for a new decade.

The next decade volition remain tough for Xbox, with increased competition from other big tech companies who have sat up and noticed that core gaming can exist large concern. Microsoft, on the other hand, has to wrestle with the reality that information technology has no mobile platform of its own, and edifice up a viable business on Android and iOS through Project XCloud could prove to be a challenging climb.

Other companies, too, are looking to capitalize on the ubiquitous nature of mobile, with Google recently launching Stadia, and Mainland china's Tencent getting involved with NVIDIA for like attempts. Xbox has 1 gargantuan advantage, though, in the form of content. Every Xbox game bachelor today, which number in the thousands, are gear up to exist deployed to any device, anywhere, owing to the global reach of Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.

Thank you to Spencer'due south intervention, Xbox has been saved from the complacency of the past and the restrictions of the Windows business. Xbox has finally been unleashed for a new decade, and the time to come is bright.

Xbox

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UH OH

An internet connection will soon be required when setting up Windows xi Pro

Microsoft has announced that subsequently this year, users will be required to connect to the internet and sign-in with a Microsoft Account during the out of box setup experience on Windows xi Pro. Microsoft has already been enforcing this requirement on Windows 11 Home since launch concluding October, and Windows 11 Pro is now expected to follow adjust soon.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/decade-in-review-phil-spencer-led-xbox

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